MICHAEL WILLIAMSON / AP
James Calderwood, a Boy Scout in Chevy Chase, Md., has earned 122 merit badges — so many that he had to sew three sashes together to display them all.
Maryland Boy Scout earned every merit badge available
By Paul Duggan
The Washington Post
It's not easy making Eagle, the highest honor in Boy Scouts. You need at least 21 merit badges, some required. Only 2 percent of Scouts get that far. A remarkable achievement. So what adjective should be used for James Calderwood, who has earned 121 merit badges? (Scout's honor.)
The Chevy Chase, Md., teen has every badge available, from American business to woodwork. He even has one they don't give out anymore — "atomic energy" — so make it 122.
He has so many that he can't wear them the usual way. "I actually had to make my own sash, where I took three sashes and sewed them together," he said.
The Boy Scouts of America doesn't keep records of Scouts who have earned every badge. But not many have done it, said Deborah Dean, program director for the Scouts' National Capital Area Council. Dean confirmed Calderwood's achievement, calling it "extremely rare."
Calderwood reached the 21-badge mark for Eagle in 2002 and left it in the dust.
"Bugling was probably one of the most difficult," said Calderwood, a high-school senior. "I've never been very musically gifted. And I was on five different continents over the summer, so I didn't have much time to practice. ... I brought my mouthpiece with me. I brought it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and everyplace else I was, and I tried to practice."
Among the other places he was over the summer (besides the top of a mountain in Tanzania): in Japan, with exchange students; in Costa Rica, working with an ecological program; and in northern Kenya, helping open a medical clinic.
"Then when I got back to the United States," he said, "I met with a music teacher two to three times a week and just kept practicing and practicing."
And finally, in January, he passed his bugle test, two days before his 18th birthday, which is the age cutoff for getting merit badges — and that was it, the final badge, No. 122.
Calderwood, who will soon graduate from Georgetown Preparatory School, is the only child of Jim Calderwood, an antitrust lawyer, and Joyce Johnson, a retired Coast Guard admiral who is vice president of a health-care concern. He joined the Boy Scouts in sixth grade. Most of his free time since has been devoted to one thing.
"I never planned on getting them all," he said. "First, I just sort of concentrated on the ones that went with my hobbies. And then I just thought I should keep going."
Here's how he did it.
• Astronomy: "I studied astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University one summer."
• Cinematography: "I filmed a video on the proper use of knives that was shown to cooks in the military. Like if you want to cut a thick fruit as the garnish, I demonstrated the proper way to cut it."
• Indian lore: "I spent a lot of time with the Native Americans. I stayed with the Hopis and the Navajos in Arizona."
• Plumbing: "Man, I've fixed more toilets in this house."
In addition to Scouting, Calderwood participates in theater, debating and other activities.
His next step is college.
"I want to be a doctor," he said. "I want to go into medicine in the developing world."
He applied to 13 colleges, and acceptance letters have poured in from universities: from Drexel and Villanova, from Creighton and Fordham, from the universities of Pennsylvania and Maryland. He isn't sure where he'll go.
But he has to make up his mind this month, and, finally, with no more badges to earn, he has time to think about it.
What was his least favorite badge? "Insect study was something I wasn't as fascinated by as much as the other ones," he said. "But there wasn't a badge that I dreaded getting. I mean, every single badge intrigued me."
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